Hamilton Robotics Safeguards Precious Blood Transfers

Hamilton Robotics this week introduced the easyBlood STARlet™ workstation, a fully automated system for blood fractionation in biobanking applications, at the annual Society of Laboratory Automation and Screening meeting 2013.

The easyBlood STARlet workstation effectively eliminates error-prone manual pipetting steps and increases the safety of precious biobanking samples with state-of-the-art imaging technology, excellent pipetting capabilities, and powerful sample tracking software.

The system is a high-throughput, fully integrated workstation that enables technicians to reliably pipette the desired layer of primary blood samples, including the buffy coat. The system is compatible with laboratory information management systems (LIMS), offers full traceability by ensuring that data can be linked confidently to each sample, and enables a seamless biobanking workflow.

The easyBlood STARlet system is manufactured in Hamilton’s Bonaduz, Switzerland facility and is based on the compact Hamilton Robotics Microlab® STARlet platform. The world-leading Hamilton STAR line of instruments offers laboratories the greatest flexibility in liquid handling application design, including heating and cooling devices, multi-channel heads, and HEPA hoods. The easyBlood STARlet workstation offers customers the ability to fractionate blood from a multitude of primary sample tubes to a variety of 2D-barcoded and storage-ready target containers found in today’s biobanks.

The comprehensive easyBlood STARlet system includes all required components and software for reading and loading barcoded, decapped samples and additional labware such as plates and pipette tips. The instrument's high-resolution, camera-based fraction identification detects difficult targets, such as buffy coats and gel separators in centrifuged samples. The system provides complete control and monitoring of the pipetting process with software-enabled adjustment of pipetting speed to suit specific liquid classes. All three fractions (plasma, buffy coat, and red blood cells) are pipetted and aliquoted as desired.

The easyBlood workstation also integrates with the new, -80°C BiOS™ third-generation automated storage system, which was designed for sample integrity and superior service.